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How To Overcome Imposter Syndrome [Video]

Imposter Syndrome

Imposter syndrome impacts 7 out of 10 highly creative people during their lifetime. Knowing how to respond can make all the difference.

Imposter syndrome is loosely defined as doubting your abilities and feeling like a fraud. It disproportionately affects high-achieving people, who find it difficult to accept their accomplishments.

Let’s use an example:

Your new single comes out, and the response is overwhelmingly positive. As people reach out to congratulate you, something inside your head questions the legitimacy of their claims. People tell you that you’re special and that you’ve made something impressive, but you don’t feel that way. You may believe the opposite! You think your success boils down to luck, not talent, and that you play no role in your achievements.

If you recognize that feeling, then you’ve encountered Imposter Syndrome.

In this Music Biz update, host James Shotwell explains the causes of imposter syndrome and its research. He also shares more than a half-dozen proven methods of overcoming this dreadful disease, as well as his personal struggles.

Music Biz is brought to you by Haulix, the music industry’s leading promotional distribution platform. Start your one-month free trial today and gain instant access to the same promotional tools used by BMG, Concord, Rise Records, Pure Noise Records, and hundreds more. Visit http://haulix.com/signup for details.

Valerie Young, from ImposterSyndrome.com, offers these tips:

  1. Break the silence. Shame keeps a lot of people from “fessing up” about their fraudulent feelings. Knowing there’s a name for these feelings and that you are not alone can be tremendously freeing. 
  2. Separate feelings from fact. There are times you’ll feel stupid. It happens to everyone from time to time. Realize that just because you may feel stupid, doesn’t mean you are.
  3. Recognize when you should feel fraudulent.  A sense of belonging fosters confidence. If you’re the only or one of a few people in a meeting, classroom, field, or workplace who look or sound like you or are much older or younger, then it’s only natural you’d sometimes feel like you don’t totally fit in. Plus if you’re the first woman, people of color, or person with a disability to achieve something in your world, e.g. first VP, astronaut, judge, supervisor, firefighter, honoree, etc. there’s that added pressure to represent your entire group. Instead of taking your self-doubt as a sign of your ineptness, recognize that it might be a normal response to being on the receiving end of social stereotypes about competence and intelligence. 
  4. Accentuate the positive. The good news is being a perfectionist means you care deeply about the quality of your work. The key is to continue to strive for excellence when it matters most, but don’t persevere over routine tasks and forgive yourself when the inevitable mistake happens. 
  5. Develop a healthy response to failure and mistake making. Henry Ford once said, “Failure is only the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” Instead of beating yourself up for falling short, do what players on the losing sports team do and glean the learning value from the loss and move on reminding yourself, “I’ll get ’em next time.”
  6. Right the rules. If you’ve been operating under misguided rules like, “I should always know the answer,” or “Never ask for help” start asserting your rights. Recognize that you have just as much right as the next person to be wrong, have an off-day, or ask for assistance. 
  7. Develop a new script. Become consciously aware of the conversation going on in your head when you’re in a situation that triggers your Impostor feelings. This is your internal script. Then instead of thinking, “Wait till they find out I have no idea what I’m doing,” tell yourself “Everyone who starts something new feels off-base in the beginning. I may not know all the answers but I’m smart enough to find them out.” Instead of looking around the room and thinking, “Oh my God everyone here is brilliant…. and I’m not” go with “Wow, everyone here is brilliant – I’m really going to learn a lot!”
  8. Visualize success. Do what professional athletes do. Spend time beforehand picturing yourself making a successful presentation or calmly posing your question in class. It sure beats picturing impending disaster and will help with performance-related stress. 
  9. Reward yourself. Break the cycle of continually seeking °© and then dismissing °© validation outside of yourself by learning to pat yourself on the back.
  10. Fake it ‘til you make it. Now and then we all have to fly by the seat of our pants. Instead of considering “winging it” as proof of your ineptness, learn to do what many high achievers do and view it as a skill. The point of the worn-out phrase, fake it til you make it, still stands: Don’t wait until you feel confident to start putting yourself out there. Courage comes from taking risks. Change your behavior first and allow your confidence to build. 
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87% Of Musicians Believe The Pandemic Has Hurt Their Mental Health

With no definitive end in sight, the devastating impact of COVID-19 on musicians’ mental health is becoming increasingly clear.

A new report from Health Musicians UK has found that 87% of professional musicians believe their mental health has deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic. The 100-year-old charitable organization released their findings of a survey conducted with 700 musicians earlier this month.

The report also found that nearly 70% of those surveyed said they weren’t confident that they would be “able to cope financially” over the next six months. Half of the respondents (51%) said they were currently earning nothing at all from music.

24% of the musicians who took part in the study admitted that they are currently considering leaving the music profession for good due to the pandemic and Brexit’s effect. Other factors impacting musicians’ mental health over the past year include a lack of certainty about the future (91%), not being able to perform (81%), and having no purpose (66%).

Speaking about the findings of the study, Help Musicians’ Chief Executive James Ainscough said:

“We can’t sugarcoat these findings – we are facing a mental health crisis amongst musicians on an unprecedented scale.”

“Whilst there may be light at the end of the tunnel with a roadmap out of lockdown revealed, there is still substantial uncertainty around how quickly the music industry can recover, plus the catastrophic impact of the Brexit deal on musicians’ ability to tour. After a year of hardship, the ongoing uncertainty for musicians is taking a huge toll on mental health.”

“We have been offering ongoing financial support to thousands of musicians throughout the pandemic, but offering money is just one part of what musicians need – we have also had to completely revamp the mental health support we offer to address this rapidly unfolding crisis. Musicians who cannot work don’t just suffer financially; they grieve for the creativity and connections that their music usually brings.”

Haulix Daily has not found a similar survey focusing on musicians in the United States, but it’s easy to believe any such polling would return similar results. While many are rushing to find some semblance of “normalcy” between soft reopenings and vaccine appointments, musicians will be among the last to return to work.

If you know a musician, please take a moment to check on them. You never know what someone is going through until you take the time to ask.

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The secret to figuring out your life and career

How many times has this happened to you: A day like any other is occurring when suddenly, without warning, you are attacked by every fear and self-doubt imaginable. You worry about deadlines, bills, money (or lack thereof), friends, appearances, diets, mental health, family, things, stuff, and a whole lot of additional nonsense too extensive to list in full here. These moment of panic happen to most, if not everyone trying to navigate the often treacherous landscape of existence, and most find they have no other choice than to endure such moments and hope they quickly pass.

If this applies to you, please do not fret. It applies to me as well, and probably every other person who dares click on this page. This is not the biggest website on Earth, but we do have visitors, so believe me when I say you should not feel alone because the fact you and I are connecting through these words now is proof there are many who suffer from these moments of uncertainty. If you only take one thing from this post please know that is that you are not alone in these struggles.

This brings me to the point of this post, which some of you may have already figured out. The secret to figuring out your life is accepting the fact you are nothing more or less than a constant work in progress. Happiness and success are journeys, not destinations, and the same can be said for anything else you may feel you are lacking right now in life. You might not be chasing your dreams the way you wish you could, but it is important to realize being able to chase your passions at all is something the vast majority of the 8 billion (plus) people walking this planet would kill to do. By simply knowing there is more in this life for you than what you have right now you are already miles ahead of most, and you will get further ahead still in time.

So embrace the chaos, my friend. Embrace it with the recognition that you have to wake every day and do the same, all while still pushing toward a better tomorrow. Some days you will get ahead, and if you’re lucky that good fortune will extend for weeks or even months, but at some point the pendulum of life will swing in the opposite direction and you will need to fight through that as well. This battle is yours and yours alone, but it is important to remember we are all fighting our own version of this battle in our individual lives each day. The wages of this war are often hard to see on the surface, but the exhaustion fighting to get ahead can cause is easy to see in the paths those around you inevitably fall into when their will to continue onward begins to breakdown. It is up to you to choose how far you go, and if you want to see your dreams through then that is entirely possible. Just remember that there will be setbacks, often far more frequently than you find success, but those setbacks only hurt you and your ability to achieve more as much as you allow. If you refuse to be stopped and wake every day battle ready you will, in time, find what you seek.

Through all of this you must keep your head held high for it is the only way to survive. You are worthy of the things you seek, but they must be earned each and every day.

James Shotwell is a ten year veteran of the music business. He is currently the Director of Customer Engagement at Haulix, the world’s leading promotional distribution company, as well as the Web Editor for Substream Magazine. We don’t like telling people what to do, but you should probably follow him on Twitter.

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5 signs you have the mental toughness to succeed in music

The following post is the latest in our ongoing content collaboration series with the fine folks at SonicBids. If you enjoy this post, please check out their blog and platform whenever your schedule allows.

For those who engage in physically demanding sports, like mountain climbing or a long-distance running, the phrase “mental toughness” is thrown around quite a bit. Even outside the realm of sports, the word has caught on with business gurus, personal trainers, and, yes, even musicians.

Playing the guitar and climbing a mountain obviously take some sort of physical action, but that’s not all there is to it. The psychological attribute of mental toughness can be the extra ingredient that takes your playing to new heights.

So what exactly is mental toughness? To be quite honest, it’s a rather controversial term. The loose definition of mental toughness refers to any type of positive attribute that can help a person overcome a difficult situation. Some don’t see music as one of these difficult situations, but not everything has to be an epic, physical challenge.

The fact is, mental toughness is beneficial to your music career. Some are naturally gifted with such a trait, while others have to work a little harder at it. If you’re on the fence about your own mental toughness, the following five signs should help figure out if you’ve got it going on.

1. Complete control of focus

Having control over focus is a sure sign of a tough mentality. As a musician, there are times when you really need to channel your focus, and there are times when you need to shut it off. For example, during a performance, an intense focus is needed, but when you get off the stage during an intermission, that focus should be turned off.

The mentally weak don’t have any power over this quality. As a result, they’re left with a fleeting focus that’s hard to control.

Not only can you benefit more from relaxing your focus in music, but focus can help with situations outside of music, too. Music may be your life, but it’s not immune to the myriad of personal-life distractions. There may be unpaid bills, dirty dishes, conflict with family, or other obligations that all attempt to derail your focus. The mentally tough can deal with these distractions while still remaining focused on their music career.

2. Quick recovery from failure

Staying positive and in control of your mind, even in the face of failure, is another sure sign of mental toughness. You may have gotten lost on the way to a gig, played a song horribly, or gotten sick on the road. The life of a musician is full of these issues, but the mentally tough will not let them stand in the way of their success.

Failure is painful and demoralizing. It leaves some deep emotional wounds and can impact us on a subconscious level. If the psyche is damaged from failure, then that will eventually interfere with aspects of your music. That’s why it’s necessary to stay focused and in control of your mind even in the face of devastating failure.

3. Confidence

Do you believe in your musical skills and abilities? Can you easily navigate through times of challenge and conflict? Are your social skills well formed?

If you answered yes to all of these questions, then it’s likely you’re a confident person. People who define themselves as self-confident believe they can succeed despite any obstacles they may face. These mentally tough individuals don’t back down from competition. In fact, they actively try to put themselves in situations like that. They take charge, make decisions, and have large amounts of courage, even if fear is involved. These people crave the limelight – not for the fame and fortune, but for the challenge.

Anyone who wants to truly succeed in music needs to have this quality of mental toughness. Perhaps you have a fear of large crowds or are intimidated by a better musician. That’s a natural feeling. If you want to overcome those feelings of anxiety, you need to develop a confidence-building strategy. You need to throw yourself in uncomfortable situations until that confidence develops. Once you can confidently say to the world, “I’m a great musician,” you’re on your way to mental toughness.

4. Embracing challenge

Embracing challenge means you thrive and actively seek out environments that present difficult opportunities. While these challenges are far from easy, they ultimately help you learn and grow. Most people tend to hide from such events for fear of failure or out of sheer laziness. People who embrace them, however, have a certain ability to think outside of the box.

Challenge-seekers enjoy giving their creativity a workout. They love to explore the lesser known parts of innovation. Some may think these people are crazy for willingly seeking out a risk. But think about risk taking for a second. When you or anyone else takes a risk, either in music or life, do you ever seek out a negative outcome? Of course not. You take risks with a hope of a positive outcome.

This is the essence of a challenge-seeker: they are purely focused on the positive. They realize that challenges and uncertainty are concepts that lead to change. They’re natural parts of life that shouldn’t be avoided, but instead embraced.

Constant change is needed to improve as a musician. That won’t happen without embracing the challenge. It’s a difficult habit to get into, though, which is why it helps make you mentally tough.

5. Committing

Sure, having confidence and the ability to embrace challenge are great qualities, but if you don’t commit to anything, they’re useless. The deepest part of you has to know that music will be your career. If you’re truly serious, you’ll realize that this isn’t just a stepping stone to something better down the road. Once you have that mindset in place, it’s time to commit.

Musicians are often unsuccessful in their mission because they fear commitment to their deepest values. They may think they want to spend months away from family, grunge it out in nightclubs, and practice their craft every day, but when it comes down to it, some just aren’t that committed.

These same people believe success is an act of evolution. Unfortunately, you can’t inherit competence. True success is the result of hard work, focus, and commitment to finding the end result. Success doesn’t happen overnight, and this frustrates the mentally weak.

A fully committed, mentally tough individual always finds an innovative solution to their challenges. That’s because commitment comes from passion. Those who are truly passionate will stop at nothing to pursue their goal.

If you think you’re lacking commitment or any of these other qualities, it’s never too late to work on your mental toughness. It’s similar to a muscle in that repeated practice will make it stronger. Combining a tough mind with musical skill will only benefit you in the quest for a successful music career.

Anthony Cerullo is a nomadic freelance writer and keyboard player. In his spare time, he can be found reading, hiking mountains, and lying in hammocks for extended periods of time.

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The Music VS. The Misery

The following blog is a guest piece by Sheridan Allen, founder of Punk Talks! Together with her team, Allen works to educate people in music about the importance of mental health. We believe in her efforts, and we wanted to give her an opportunity to share her mission with the world. 

It is no secret that we, as a scene, are…well, sad. Emo music and the subculture that exists within it is not a new revelation of a social movement; since the early 2000’s when the emo music genre began to fully take shape, we have watched the many ways that the community has shifted. From the eye-liner wearing, skinny jean craze of 2006 to the lull of 2011 to the DIY northeastern-saturated underground movement that exists today, the trends have changed, but the feelings haven’t. In my final semester of my undergrad, I spent my time studying the prevalence of mental health issues within our community. I could bore you with the hours of data collection, analysis, and literature reviews, but I will condense my findings into something that I am sure you have already guessed by now: mental health is an issue in our community.

Throughout my research, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to interview a few industry professionals in an attempt to better gauge their perception on this issue. Not shockingly, individuals working full-time in the punk/emo music industry see this problem (and often experience it) and agree that we could certainly benefit from a positive change. Ryan McKenna, bassist for Prawn and Sorority Noise agreed that “there’s a lot of angst that gets thrown around because that is kind of the root of the music itself” and consequently “the scene is a powder keg of mental health issues waiting to happen.” And while it may be true that not every individual in this community, professional or otherwise, suffer from problems related to their mental health, there is a general agreement that mental health needs to be addressed. Zack Zarillo, owner of PropertyofZack (and a slew of other credentials) agreed with this sentiment, stating that mental health isn’t “truly addressed in our community unless something warrants it being mentioned, like a tragic event.”

I, too, saw this issue and its prevalence from an objective fan standpoint and I wanted to do something about it; this observation was the driving force behind my research and development of Punk Talks, an organization that I run which provides free/donation-based discussion and mental health assistance to musicians and industry workers within this community. Further, Punk Talks aims to raise awareness, educate, and diffuse the apprehension and stigma of seeking professional treatment. Mental health has been at the forefront of discussion in American social issues in recent years; a push in awareness and educational efforts have encouraged compassion and have assisted in the reduction of stigma associated with treatment. Despite the increasingly positive outlook society has on this social issue, why are we still so precautious about taking care of ourselves? Why are we more comfortable posting to our Tumblr’s how alone we feel or labeling ourselves as a “sad boy/girl” but we completely shrug off the idea of seeking treatment?

My goal is simple: to give back to the community that has given me so much throughout my lifetime. We have a unique opportunity to destroy this idea that to be creative, we have to be miserable. If I can help a young person who is worn down by the stressors of being a music professional, and they in turn, can provide comfort to an audience themselves, I have been successful. This discussion is a crucial one, so we need to remain intentional and engaged in it. I feel so privileged for the opportunity to help facilitate this discussion. You don’t have to be sad to make great music.

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